Speaking on Saturday at the Ocean Rise and Coastal Resilience Summit ahead of the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France, Governor Diri urged global, national, and sub-national actors to align efforts in tackling the environmental threats ravaging coastal regions like Bayelsa.
The summit, co-hosted by the governments of France and Costa Rica and attended by global leaders, scientists, and climate policy experts, featured a high-level panel session themed “Multi-Level Governance of Coastal Cities and Regions.”
Diri, who was a key panellist, stated that the escalating threat of sea level rise and coastal erosion poses an existential risk to Bayelsa and the wider Niger Delta, noting that about 70 percent of Bayelsa’s land is waterlogged and the state borders the Atlantic Ocean on three fronts.
“As a coastal state, Bayelsa lies below sea level and faces immense risks from ocean rise. Our communities are being destroyed or are on the verge of being wiped out,” he warned.
